The Use of Normalized TEC Variations for Ionospheric Model Evaluations: Overview and Initial Result

The Earths Ionosphere-Thermosphere (I/T) system exhibits complicated temporal and spatial variations that are driven by external forces, internal dynamics, and thermosphere and ionosphere coupling. This can have adverse effects on human operations and systems. Consequently, there is a need for both, accurate and reliable specifications and forecasts of the near-Earth space environment. In order to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of these models and to compare the performance across the suite of models a systematic quantitative validation effort is required that uses an appropriate metrics. In this paper we will provide an overview of the use of normalized TEC variations as an appropriate metric and present initial results.